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Mesh Arsad Al Rashid
(estimate) | place_of_birth = Sana'a, Yemen | date_of_arrest = | place_of_arrest= | arresting_authority= | date_of_release = | place_of_release= | date_of_death = | place_of_death = | citizenship = | detained_at = Guantanamo | id_number = 74 | group = | alias = | charge = No charge (held in extrajudicial detention) | penalty = | status = Repatriated | csrt_summary = | csrt_transcript= | occupation = | spouse = | parents = | children = }} Mesh Arsad Al Rashid is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 74. American intelligence analysts estimate that Al Rashid was born in 1980, in Sana'a, Yemen. He argued that he joined the Taliban army the year "before any problem happened in America", and that since he only there to fight the atheist warlords Abdul Rashid Dostum and Ahmad Shah Massoud, it didn't make sense to accuse him of wishing to harm Americans.Worthington, Andy, The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison, Pluto Press. ISBN 0745326658 2007 Life Present at the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi prison uprising, al-Rashid later characterised the incident stating that "We had given up our weapons, so how could we be part of an uprising? They were the ones that had the weapons, we tried to defend ourselves but we couldn't, because they had all the weapons." CSRT Transcript On March 3, 2006, the Department of Defense released 5,000 pages of documents about the detainees, in partial compliance with a court order from US District Court Justice Jed Rakoff.Pentagon releases documents naming Guantanamo detainees, Lexur The Department of Defense published an eight page summarized transcripts from Al Rashid's Combatant Status Review Tribunal. For some reason the Department of Defense released Al Rashid's transcript twice. Press reports When the Department of Defense first released its thousands of pages of transcripts most transcripts were only identified by a detainee ID number. A few transcripts contained the detainee's name in the body of the transcripts. Initial press reports focused on the cases of those detainees. Al Rashid was one of those detainees. According to an Associated Press story Al Rashid told his Combatant Status Review Tribunal he: "went to Afghanistan to help Muslims fight against Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former northern warlord now the Afghan army chief of staff, and Ahmed Shah Massoud, an anti-Taliban Afghan military commander slain September 9, 2001.Details of Some Guantanamo Hearings, ''Las Vegas Sun, March 4, 2006 Al Rashid told his Combatant Status Review Tribunal: *''"I did not know my training would be considered al-Qaeda training. I was trying to help Muslims,"Suit leads to disclosure of 5,000 pages of transcripts from secret hearings, The Scotsman, March 5, 2006 *''"I never had a weapon. I never carried a weapon with me and I've never been in any kind of armed fight ... I always knew America as a democratic country and always heard positive things about America. I believe that after 9/11 America became very aggressive and that's probably the only reason I'm here."Guantanamo - Inmates' testimonies, The Independent, March 6, 2006 *"I am not from the Taliban. I'm just a person, a helper." Repatriated on December 29, 2007 A captive named "Mishaal Saad Al-Rasheed" was repatriated on December 29, 2007, with nine other men. On January 9, 2009 the Department of Defense published the records for the third set of Administrative Review Board hearings, conducted in 2007 and early 2008. According to those records no review was scheduled for Rashid in 2007. According to the records of the 2005 and 2006 Board hearings, those boards had not recommended his repatriation. Al Rashid was repatriated in spite of the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants recommending his continued detention in US custody. References Category:Living people Category:People from Sana'a Category:Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Category:Saudi Arabian people